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User: Steveftoth

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  1. Portable Genesis... Nomad on The Battle Of The Consoles: From Atari To The Xbox · · Score: 2

    They also made a portable Genesis, it was called the Nomad. Looked like a genesis controler with a screen in it.

  2. Re:Some Constant Rules though on The Battle Of The Consoles: From Atari To The Xbox · · Score: 2

    Don't forget the genesis, you could get a box for 40 bucks that would let you play Master System games. I played one of the best RPGs ever on that thing, Phantasy Star.

    The PS2 is the first POPULAR console that has backwards compatability though.

    Also, the Game Boy advance plays all game boy games, from the original (released in the 80's) all the way to the GB Color.

  3. Re:Well, this old rumor is bound to be true someda on Flat-panel iMacs in Apple's Future? · · Score: 2

    Compaq?

    Apple got credit for copying itself. The iMac is a sleeker version of the Macintosh 128k.

    Not that the iMac isn't cool, I think that computers that come in square boxes are what is needed for computers, but anyone who thinks it's a change from what apple was doing before is simply wrong. They just brought the old style into the 21st century.

  4. Dreamcast! on Good Games For Christmas? · · Score: 2

    For less then the price of a GameCube you can get a DC with a tom of good games.

    DC 50-60 bucks.
    xtra controller - 15
    memory card - 10
    Soul Calibur - 25-35 ( a must have )
    other games - 5 - 25 dollars

    I got evolution for 5 bucks, ROLW for 10, Shenmue for 20, Chu Chu for 10, Jet Grind Radio for 10. The list goes on, but if you don't mind the fact that no more new games are coming out, then for like 150 dollars you can get hundreds of hours of entertainment.

  5. Re:Why can't anyone see the implications of this? on This is IT? · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This invention isn't going to change the world overnight. If it changes the world at all it will take a couple of years.

    Change is scary stuff That's why nobody like this idea. It COULD change the lives of everyone, everyday. The internet still doesn't affect everyone's daily lives (just ours) but transportation is something everyone needs and uses and we all have to share the same roads.

  6. Re:of course it pollutes. on This is IT? · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Of course you are generating less polution! You are not carrying around a ton of steel with you wherever you go. Even if you generate more polution you are using way less enegry. Duh!

  7. Re:But people don't want to cooperate on Open Spectrum: Free the Airwaves · · Score: 1

    Yeah, I was just saying that it was possiable, not that it was easy :)

  8. Re:Just another thought on Open Spectrum: Free the Airwaves · · Score: 2, Informative

    You are confusing the HTTP protocol ( how a browser gets information ) with HTML ( how a browser displays information ) and in the case of both there are central controlling bodys that manage them. HTML is managed by the W3C and HTTP is an RFC. The diference between this and the airwaves, is that you can't get arrested for starting a non-compliant server / browser. Like with radio.

    This is really comparing apples to oranges. As well. You can't mess up someone who isn't viewing your webpage with a messed up http implementation. While you can really mess up the radio spectrum if you send out bad signals.

  9. Re:But people don't want to cooperate on Open Spectrum: Free the Airwaves · · Score: 2

    IF you jam all the freqs that the device uses to communicate, then you have jammed it.

    And I believe that the military uses it more so because of the security features of spread sprectum tech then the anti-jamming. If you don't know where the signal is going to be next, then you can't decode a spread spectrum transmission. If there are multiple senders/recievers, then this will make it next to impossiable to decode.

  10. Re:So What? on Genetically-Engineered Super-Athletes? · · Score: 2

    But what if you engineer a kid to do something and it turns out that s/he doesn't want to do that? What do you do then? We already have this problem with parents who try to get their kids to do everything they didn't do as a child, but this just compounds the fact. What if a child was bred to do something but still sucked at it, or worse yet, didn't like it but did it anyway out of guilt?

    At least with random selection nobody is held accountable.

  11. Re:This is on topic. Honest! on Inside The Nintendo GameCube · · Score: 2

    GTA3 didn't satisify me either, and I think that it's because of the true perfection that was GT2. GT3 was GT2 with less (but cooler) cars and better graphics. In the end it was proven that gameplay matters, not graphics. And the gameplay of the GT series is a ton of cars and a ton of tracks. They shouldn't to have gotten rid of the High Speed Ring either. It's hard for a newbie to start playing it when there are no easy but curvy tracks. The Super Speedway doesn't count. That being said, If they introduce new modes of play in GT4, and more cars then GT2, then it will be a good game.

    I would like to say that I think that no console has a real advantage in the graphics department anymore. And the reason is that it costs so much to make a game that has really good graphics these days that it looks like a lot of game makers are going to target the lowest common denominator and release the game for all three platforms. Only a few high profile games will get the royal treatment of optimization for a platform. Look at games like Simpsons road rage. It's out for PS2, X-Box and I think GC (if not then soon ). That game is the perfect example of the mass market game (which most are). It's got ok graphics, not a great, but playable game. With a lot of games coming out for multiple systems, it will be hard to make a decision as to which system to purchase. Glad I got a DC the other day for cheap.

    Also, why are all games coming in DVD boxes? Now all the games look the same. Even the screen shots on the boxes look the same.

  12. Re:This type of thing won't go over here on Cable Co's Want More Control Over Your Network · · Score: 1

    You are right, that's why they are trying to use the NUMBER of devices to charge more. They know that if they take it to court on the fact that you are sharing it they will lose. IF they can charge based on the NUMBER of devices, all of a sudden it doesn't matter if you are sharing with your neighbors, they get more money if more people use their service, illegal or not.

  13. Re:I'm not sure I see the real argument on Cable Co's Want More Control Over Your Network · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Cell phones are less and less the exception. As more people get a cell phone, you will see flat rate systems popping up.

  14. Re:OT: Why "DualHead"? on Fast Alpha-Blending In Your GUI · · Score: 1

    Unless they changed it in XP, win2k doesn't actually accelerate any but the primary display. So getting a secondary video card that is fast is not a good investment. Advantage... Dualhead, because dualhead is trickier then that and accelerates the second video card. At least when you make windows think that it is one huge screen.

    But 2 monitors is the bomb diggity for working. Especially debugging.

  15. Re:wasn't the MS/SGI pack just a ploy to borrow/st on OpenGL 2.0 White Papers · · Score: 1

    Realtime simulations was one thing OpenGL was designed for. The idea being that you had some really big supercomputer doing the number crunching, while you have a smaller workstation level computer do the graphics rendering. That's why OpenGL works over the network. At least the IRIX versions do, I don't know about the WInNT versions.

  16. Re:You scare me. on The Power of Multi-Language Applications · · Score: 1

    Assimung of course that you have a good software design.

    Debugging is only as hard as you make it. If your original design for your system is modular enough to be debugged in parts then you can do that. But if your modules are not really self contained and depend on each other in weird and unpredictable ways, then debugging is really tough.

  17. All the money should go twords training on Microsoft Would Settle For The Children · · Score: 1

    All the money that they are going to have to give to the schools should be for training. They should pay to have the teachers trained in not just MS software, but in all aspects of computer software. The budget should be more like 1 billion for teacher training and 200 million for software.

    Computers are tools and if you don't know how to use a tool then it is useless.

  18. Re:I'm impressed by C# -- the language on C# From a Java Developer's Perspective · · Score: 1

    Another reason that java is not the language of choice for IO, all io is blocked! At least until version 1.4

  19. Re:Some more information on C# From a Java Developer's Perspective · · Score: 2, Informative

    Sorry, but javac WILL do that.

    All static final primitives are substituted at compile time. They are treated as compile time constants. See the JLS 13.4.8 for reference.

    (I just love being a language nazi)

  20. Re:C# is really kinda cool stuff on C# From a Java Developer's Perspective · · Score: 1

    I'll agree that MS tries to make things easy for people to develop for, but making Java programs easy to install is not only a possiability, it's a reality!
    Try to install ... ( on win32 )
    Forte
    LimeWire
    JBuilder
    Roboforge ( Java game )
    Daliworld
    or any Java app that uses the InstallAnywhere interface.
    and tell me that all Java programs are hard to install! Java Web Start is trying to make it even EASIER to install programs, with JWS, all downloading and install is handled for you. It even lets you run the app in a sandbox if you don't trust it. Something that all MS technologies cannot do.

    <sarcasm>But since you are out to make money and nobody wants a java coder you don't care about that.</sarcasm>

    BTW, who knows if C# is native ,bytecode, or both? I'm still confused on that point.

  21. Re:The lesser of two evils on C# From a Java Developer's Perspective · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If c# takes off for windows programming I think it will be because people will be able to build responsive GUI programs with it. The largest problem with Java is people's conception that it is SLOW. Java coders know that is not true in general. However, AWT and Swing are slower then they need to be because of their cross-platform compatability. If you can build a responsive GUI program in less time using C# then I think it will be the language of choice for many coders. C++ takes more time to get all your bugs out, Java gets rid of the possiability for many bugs, (while introducing others, but there are less overall) and reduces time of coding.

    Also, you'll be able to use all the newest 'must have features' that MS tries to shove on the consumer in C#.

    For now, I'll stick with Java because it's libraries are much better. Not just the ones that Sun wrote, but more importantly, the ones that other people have written.

  22. Re:Great... a proprietary MS pc. Whoop-de-doo... on Another Xbox Anatomy Lesson · · Score: 1

    That line about console owners not putting up with their consoles crashing is bunk.

    People used to BLOW in their Nintendo carts to get them to work!!!!!! Same with Atari.

  23. Re:Bleemcasted on Bleem's Gravestone Online · · Score: 1

    Actually, the reason that an emulator is HARD to get 100% compatability is that there are BUGS in the hardware. Yes, when the hardware doesn't work acording to 'spec' then things get hard to emulate correctly. The earlier games are easier to emulate because they don't use all the features of the hw, since they are amost always programmed in a virtual enviroment anyway. (At least the PS one /two and Xbox were) The later games give all the programmers from the SONY library writers to the actually game programmers more time to write code that exposes all the bugs in the HW. They work around these bugs and when the bugs are not emulated, the games don't work correctly. You know, little things, like not clearing the Overflow flag after certain types of operations and stupid stuff like that.

    Anyway, my feelings on emulators are that they are fun, but in the end, it's not worth the time to make them. Where are the DOS emulators so that I can play any game in win2k? MS has one, but it only works most of the time.

    Only the truely hardcore are willing to put up with the problems inherent in emulators. And even then, they only do it because it's free to copy games. If you didn't grow up with games like SMB, Final Fantasy, River City Ransom, then you are NOT willing to pay 30-50 bucks for them.

  24. Re:You didn't buy insurance? on How Not To Ship Computers · · Score: 1

    I agree with TargetBoy. Just look at what they actually use to ship equipment.

    If the box it came in was destroyed, then I think that you didn't pack it correctly. Probably the bubble wrap broke and the monitor (or computer) started to shift around and busted out of the box.

    Though I have seen equipment shipped in the original packing ALMOST destroyed. Not quite, just some plastic molding cracked, but still no good.

    I think the only thing you can get through UPS without breaking is probably sand.

  25. Re:Too indiscriminate to work on Convert Movies From R to PG13 to PG On The Fly · · Score: 1

    That version of Brazil is the 'love conqures all' version. If you get the 3-disc set DVD you can get a copy of it. It's really a totatly different movie, the end is completly different, and parts of the middle are gone as well. The big difference is that it's only 90 minutes instead of the full 2 hours. So they had to cut a lot. The plot makes no sence at the end, not that Brazil made a lot of sence until you've seen it like twenty times. There's a lot of hidden and quick points in that movie. Buttle-Tuttle not withstanding.

    If you don't trust the editors, then you don't have to use the features. Also, do you really think it's possiable to make a PG rating for all movies? It would be nice to have a G rating for flight of the navigator. The only reason it's PG is because the father curses in ONE scene. That's a good kids movie.